Marie-Aimée Lullin (5 April 1751 – 25 January 1822) was the transcriber and observer for her husband, a highly regarded entomologist who became blind at an early age.
Marie-Aimée Lullin | |
|---|---|
| Born | 5 April 1751 |
| Died | 25 January 1822 |
| Occupation(s) | Reader, secretary and observer |
| Spouse | François Huber (1750-1831) |
| Children | Pierre Huber (1777-1840), Marie Anne Huber (1779-1871), Jean Huber (1785-1839) |
| Parents |
|
Life
editLullin was the daughter of Pierre Lullin (1712-1789), who served as syndic of Geneva, and Sarah Rilliet (1723-1751).
She married François Huber (1750-1831), the famous blind entomologist,[1][2] on 28 April 1776 in Geneva, Republic of Geneva after having to wait seven years to do so. Lullin had become friends with Huber at 17 when they were dance partners,[3] but Lullin's father would not allow her to marry, at so young an age, a man with failing eyesight.[2] Instead of abandoning Huber, she decided to wait until she had attained the age of 25, when she was legally allowed choose a husband despite the disapproval of her father.[1][2][3] Their marriage was such a love story that they were the inspiration for the novel Delphine by Germaine de Staël and was noticed by Voltaire in their correspondence.[3] Lullin stood with her husband as a life-long partner and helped to alleviate his blindness where she could, so that he never truly felt misfortune in being blind.[4]
They had three children together:[1] Pierre Huber (1777-1840),[5][3][6] Marie Anne Huber (1779-1871)[3] who married Samuel de Molin, and Jean Huber (1785-1839). Her death in 1822 affected her husband deeply, causing him to slow down, under the care of their daughter, Marie Anne.[3][4]
Lullin was described as having a small stature while also being incredibly full of life, so much that Huber would apply the same characteristics of the bees to his wife.[3][4] Her husband's description of her was Latin: mens magna in corpore parvo, which translates to 'great mind in a small body'.[3][4] Huber then applied this description to the bees, describing them with the phrase, Ingentes animos angusto in pectore versant, translating to 'Their little bodies lodge a mighty soul'.[3]
In 1991, a Venus crater was named after Marie Lullin. It is located 23.1 N and 81.0 E, and it measures 24 kilometres (15 mi).[7][8]
Research
editLullin was considered "one of the earliest women to study insects experimentally."[9] Lullin became her husband's "reader, secretary and observer."[2][3] Together with their son Pierre and a servant, François Burnens, she helped Huber carry out his experiments that laid the foundations of scientific knowledge with regard to the life and biology of the honey bee.[2][3] While her roles were never specified in their work, she was described as "a good pair of eyes for him,"[4] especially as blindness fully set in. She and Burnens would make the observations through Huber's questioning, and then he would come to his own conclusions.[4] In volume one of Huber's book French: Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles (New Observations on Bees),[10][11] Burnens received recognition for his assistance in the preface, whereas Lullin did not.[4][12] When Burnens had left Huber, Marie had gained a larger role doing more of the investigations and all of the observations while working with their son.[2][9] Pierre would go on to be an editor for volume two of Huber's book, where Marie was still uncredited.[2][13]
Their discoveries on bees include the mating processes of the queen, the communicative function of the antenna, the production of wax, and the process of how drones left the hive.[2][4][9]
References
edit- ^ a b c Lullin family tree by Lionel Rossellat - "Marie Aimée Lullin". Geneanet. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h American Bee Journal. Dadant & Sons. 1861. p. 214.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal. 1833.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Johns, Bennett George (1867). Blind People: Their Works and Ways; with Sketches of the Lives of Some Famous Blind Men. J. Murray.
- ^ Montet, Albert de (1877). Dictionnaire biographique des Genevois et des Vaudois qui se sont distingués dans leur pays ou à l'étranger par leurs talents, leurs actions, leurs œuvres littéraires ou artistiques, etc (in French). G. Bridel.
- ^ "François Huber", Wikipédia (in French), 13 September 2019, retrieved 19 November 2019
- ^ Cattermole, Peter; Moore, Patrick. Atlas of Venus.
- ^ "Venus Crater Database, $name". www.lpi.usra.edu. Retrieved 19 November 2019.
- ^ a b c Alic, Margaret (1986). Hypatia's Heritage: A History of Women in Science from Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 116. ISBN 080706730X.
- ^ Huber, François (1806). New observations on the natural history of bees. Edinburgh: John Anderson. OCLC 1162801352. Archived from the original on 28 December 2009. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ Huber, Francis (1841). Observations on the natural history of bees. London: Thomas Tegg. OCLC 2773150. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
- ^ Huber, François (1814). Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles (in French). Chez J.J. Paschoud.
- ^ Huber (naturaliste), François (1814). Nouvelles observations sur les abeilles (in French). J.J. Paschoud.